Philanthropy Has A Race Problem – Community Foundations Are One Way To Solve It

What role does race play in leaders solving complex social challenges?  Not surprisingly, quite a lot. But a recent research report by Echoing Green and The Bridgespan Group paints a particularly insightful picture of how inequitable funding to leaders of color significantly impacts their ability to create impact. And at a time when the power of philanthropists is being hotly debated, the report begs the question – how can we use the current pandemic crisis respond to the need for systemic changes in philanthropy?

The study, authored by Cheryl Dorsey, Jeff Bradach, and Peter Kim, lays bare the fact that race related issues are key barriers to philanthropic advances in social change. First, the report points out, philanthropic stakeholders often have a limited understating and appreciation for the way race factors into the social challenges that they are trying to solve. Second, there is often a limited understanding of how much race is a factor in the way philanthropists themselves engage identify and engage leaders to solve those problems.

Bottom line - the fact that philanthropists don’t always see their work through the prism of race significantly limits their ability to address the very issues that they strive to solve. Conversely, seeing the work of philanthropy through a race-based lens is critical, not only for the purposes of creating greater racial equity in philanthropy, but also for achieving greater philanthropic success.

Looking to their own experiences as case studies for the findings, the study’s authors found that a critical element of inequality between leaders of color and other leaders is their access to capital. The challenges the report identifies are fourfold. First, the nature of social networks, especially the gated communities of privilege that undergird much of the philanthropic landscape, are not accessible to most leaders of color. Second, when they are even able to access those networks, deeply ingrained racial biases and other racially influenced interpersonal dynamics often impact the ability of the leaders of color to establish the kind of rapport that is necessary to secure funding. This disparity results in burdening leaders of color with a much higher level of emotional labor than their peers in simply in a myriad of philanthropic-related interactions.

Both the limited social capital and the more complex social engagement lead to the other two barriers that ultimately drive inequity in the philanthropic landscape — the impaired ability for the leaders of color to obtain funding and, once obtained, sustain it. It is these two factors that ultimately determine the financial runway leaders of color have to create and implement solutions.  

In other words, even when philanthropists have an intention of equitable funding, structural aspects of philanthropy put leaders of color at a severe disadvantage.

GETTY

...Insert Text Above

As a result, it’s not hard to see that the deep inequity won’t be easily solved simply by good intentions. It requires deep systemic changes and a focus on leveraging resources that have a greater ability to address these racial inequities head on. As the report states succinctly, “[w]hen it comes to philanthropic funding—the racial disparity is clear. Population-level impact in the issues donors care about cannot happen without funding more leaders of color and funding them more deeply.” This is not only summation of research, but a good summary of the challenge facing the philanthropic landscape today.

So how can funders and communities use these findings to advance their work?

The Echoing Green/Bridgespan report not only highlights their respective organizations journeys to address the racial inequities it sees in their work, but it also highlights the race-conscious efforts of other organizations such as the San Francisco Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust. Both organizations have placed significant focus on fostering economic inclusion, closing the wealth gap, and addressing general racial disparities in their communities. Other community foundations are also following their lead, making issues of racial equity a centerpiece of their philanthropic agenda.

In fact, it is the community foundations across the country that may be the secret weapon to helping make major inroads in the fight against racial inequity in philanthropy. There are over 750 community foundations in urban and rural areas across the country, located in all fifty states, and with assets ranging from as little as $100,000 to over $1.5 billion. Often working with a wide range of community-based partners, grantees and other philanthropic organizations such as the United Way, community foundations have the power to be not only be grantmakers, but agenda-setters and community conveners on a wide range of issues. We are seeing their efficacy right now as community foundations are rising to meet unprecedented challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But it will be the role that these foundations will play as their communities strive for resilience and recovery that makes this moment so opportune for them to be models of system change on the issue of racial equity.

Through their role as conveners, community foundations have the ability to reach far into their community’s constituencies, accessing populations of color and other often marginalized communities to engage them deeply in the important work ahead. They also have the ability to develop deeply inclusive and other advisory capabilities that can address the four factors the Echoing Green/Bridgespan report outlines. By creating more inclusive and permeable governance, outreach, and funding practices they can correlatively expand social capital, deepen understanding and trust, and create pathways for more equitable and sustained funding for leaders of color.

While every philanthropist can, and should, incorporate these measures in their funding strategies, community foundations may be uniquely positioned to do so in ways that have a ripple affect among all of the philanthropists and philanthropically minded in their community.

Racial inequality has been a dark stain on of America since its founding, and it has infiltrated every sector of our society, including philanthropy. But what this timely research demonstrates is that funders, including community-based funders and foundations, have the capacity to address these inherent challenges if they necessarily see their work through a race-based lens.

Only then will they be able to truly engage, and meaningfully fund, the leaders of color who have the skill and optimism to make a substantial impact in their communities and the world.